chez_jae

Pearls and Poison by Duffy Brown

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Before lunch, I finished my current book, which was Pearls and Poison by Duffy Brown. It's the third in the author's "Consignment Shop" series of cozy mysteries, although it's the first one I've read. The main character is Reagan Summerside--divorcee, proper Southern lady, owner/operator of the Prissy Fox consignment shop, and daughter of Judge Gloria Summerside.

Reagan's mamma is running a campaign for a position of alderman in Savannah, Georgia, and Reagan is expected to help. Reagan isn't ideally suited for politics, what with her strong opinions and habit of getting into trouble. But, when her mamma's main competition, Kip "Scummy" Seymour, ends up dead of poison and Gloria is the prime suspect, Reagan jumps headlong into the thick of things to clear her mamma's name. She is aided and abetted by her wacky Auntie KiKi (Gloria's sister) and simultaneously thwarted by her nemesis, the handsome attorney Walker Boone, who helped Reagan's ex-husband take her to the cleaner's in their divorce. Not to be dissuaded, Reagan continues sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, running afoul of several people who may have had it in for both Scummy and Gloria. Nevertheless, Reagan isn't giving up, especially since clearing her mamma's name will get Gloria back to work and out of Reagan's hair...what's left of her hair, that is.

This book was a riot! I really did laugh out loud at times while reading it. Reagan gets herself into (and thrown out of) so many ridiculous situations. Some of it was completely over the top absurd, but it was still amusing to read. Characters were well-developed and the plot raced along. I would have liked to see more of Reagan's normal life among her investigating, but at least the romantic interest was not a police officer/detective/sheriff.

Favorite lines:
♦ Get out the umbrellas and mops because pigs just went airborne and Lord knew what the fallout would be once they hit the skies.
♦ Far be it from me to come between good taste, a woman's scorn, and the first sale of the day.
♦ He did the paws-out-butt-up stretch and yawned so wide I could see clear back to his tail.
♦ "Nice hat. Looks like you fell asleep in the sun and you got a really ticked-off chicken sitting on your head."
♦ "You got that Harry Potter with a sunburn look going on."
♦ "Anyone who can whip meringues the way that woman does has definite hostile tendencies."

I did have some misgivings about this, but overall it was humor on crack, which has its own appeal. Giving it five stars.